Bay Area Houston

It’s almost funny. Homeowners can voice their opinion at the TWIA meeting July 11 in person or via Zoom. More information is here.

So…back in 2003 I was a consumer advocate and watched as Rick Perry and the Republican Party reformed the home insurance industry. Here is what Perry said after his industry friendly bill passed:

“This comprehensive reform measure will stabilize the home and auto insurance market, rid the insurance industry of fraudulent practices and ensure Texans have access to fair rates offered in a competitive market,”

LOL. How did that work fer ya? Actually not so well. Home insurance rates have since skyrocketed even prior to the post COVID inflationary period. TWIA (Texas Windstorm Insurance Association) has jumped on the opportunity to raise premiums by 20-25%. According to TWIA:

The Rate Adequacy Analysis indicates that TWIA’s current rates are inadequate by 20 percent for residential coverage and 22 percent for commercial coverage.

TWIA was created back in 1971 after Hurricane Celia and was to be the insurance policy of last resort for owners who could not find coverage. At the time insurance companies were removing wind storm protection from their policies. TWIA was created to respond to the situation and was doing just fine until 2003 when insurance reform kicked in. According to the graph provided by TWIA the number of structures covered by TWIA skyrocketed after 2003.

And the rest is history. Luckily our own State Representative Dennis Paul is on the House Committee on Insurance. I am sure he is working hard for those soon to be affected by the TWIA increase. As I said, it’s almost funny.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 5th, 2023 at 6:43 am and is filed under Consumer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.